Charlie Breitrose
Watertown senior guard Julio Fulcar, center, celebrates a basket late in the game that helped Watertown to pull away in the North Section quarterfinal victory over Lynnfield.
LYNNFIELD – The Raiders went into a hostile and steamy gym at Lynnfield High School for Saturday’s Div. 3 North boys basketball quarterfinal and made it look easy in a 62-44 victory over the hosts, despite being a much lower seed.
Leading Watertown on both sides of the ball was senior guard Julio Fulcar, who was the team’s high scorer and had the assignment to guard Lynnfield’s best player, point guard Billy Arseneault.
Watertown head basketball coach Steve Harrington knew that the Pioneers wanted to run the ball.
“They’re ability to run starts with the point guard,” Harrington said. “Fulcar – never mind his 31 or whatever [he finished with 32 points] – his job on defense was knowing where (Arsenault) was at all times.”
The No. 7 seeded Raiders (16-6) got off to a quick start, leading 10-1 halfway through the first quarter. The second seeded Pioneers (18-4) had a run to cut the lead to 16-10 at the end of the first period.
Charlie Breitrose
Watertown senior center John Korte was the focus of Lynnfield’s defense through much of the Section quarterfinal, but he still scored 14 points.
About halfway through the second quarter Arsenault hit a basket to bring the Pioneers within four points, but Fulcar answered with a three and followed it with a drive for two to give Watertown a 24-15 lead less than a minute later. At half it was 31-18 Raiders.
That was not the only time Fulcar stopped runs by Lynnfield, Harrington said.
“Fulcar just answered them. They hit a three, and I said Jeez, I think they were down to like 10 and then he hit a three,” Harrington said. “It was a killer, a deflater for the opposing team.”
Watertown held the lead at about a dozen through the third quarter and built on it in the fourth quarter for a final margin of victory of 18.
Another focus for the Raiders on Saturday was preventing Lynnfield from scoring second-chance points. Harrington said senior center John Korte was able to play inside and grab rebounds, along with scoring 14 points.
Charlie Breitrose
Watertown High School basketball coaches congratulate freshman guard Gabe Spinelli after the State Tournament victory at Lynnfield Saturday.
The team also got some key contributions from other players.
“Under rated tonight was (freshman guard Gabe) Spinelli. He gave us some good moments in the first half [scoring 6 points],” Harrington said. “And Yoseph (Hamad) had a fantastic game.”
Hamad scored nine points including a key three pointer.
Arsenault scored 19 points, but no other Pioneer scored in double digits.
The Raiders move onto the North Section semifinals to face sixth seeded Pentucket (16-6), which defeated the No. 3 seed, Hamilton-Wenham, 56-52 Saturday. The location, day and time of the game has not been announced.
Charlie Breitrose
Senior guard Julio Fulcar scored 32 points for the Raiders in the 62-44 victory in the North Section quarterfinal.